Vladimir Kumarin, widely known as the leader of the Tambov criminal gang operating in St. Petersburg, for a long time terrified entrepreneurs of the Northern capital. He is also known as a legal businessman, however, this is a thing of the past. We will talk in this article about the life and criminal path of this authority in gang circles.
Birth, youth, education
Vladimir Sergeevich Barsukov (Kumarin) was born in 1956 in the village of Aleksandrovka, which is located in the Tambov region. In childhood, he was successfully engaged in boxing. After graduation, he was drafted into the army. After the demobilization, Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin) moved to Leningrad, where he entered the Technological Institute of the Refrigeration Industry. However, he never graduated. Until the beginning of the 80s he worked as a hotel doorman, and then as a bartender in various restaurants of St. Petersburg.
First criminal record and the beginning of a criminal career
The biography of Barsukov (Kumarin) reports the first criminal liability that he incurred for storing cartridges and forging documents. The sentence was passed in 1985, and a couple of years later he was released on parole. Almost immediately after the liberation, Vladimir Barsukov began to recruit supporters in his bandit group, mainly among fellow countrymen - natives of the Tambov region. So the new Tambov group entered the criminal scene of St. Petersburg. And Barsukov himself became famous as the leader of the Tambov organized crime group. The main rivals in the criminal field for the Tambovites were members of the so-called Malyshev group, one of the fights with which became famous throughout the country, after which the operative bodies firmly took up the Kumarin gang. As a result, Vladimir Barsukov, along with seven dozen of his accomplices, was convicted in 1990. The next three years, the group did not make itself felt until its leader was freed. However, immediately after his release, a wave of bloody retaliation swept through St. Petersburg, which made it clear that the Tambovites had returned.
A year later, an attempt was made on the life of Kumarin. He was fired while in his own car. At the same time, his driver and bodyguard were killed, but he himself survived, although he was hospitalized in critical condition. Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin) was in a coma for a month. In addition, his arm was amputated, and after discharge, he went abroad, where he lived for quite a long time.
Business
When Vladimir Barsukov left for Europe, the organized criminal group left by him split into several parts, between which the period of confrontation began. Showdowns, assassinations and numerous arrests of leaders did not stop. If you believe the rumors, then outdating each other, they practically ceased to pose a threat to competing groups, and therefore their leading position was greatly shaken. This continued until 1996, when Barsukov (Kumarin) returned from Germany. Being a born leader, he managed to smooth out almost all the contradictions between the disparate “Tambovites” and again united them into one group. At the same time, the team of bandits was set the goal of actively developing various lines of business, consolidating private successes and integrating them into the overall structure. Ultimately, this led to the fact that from the gang of criminals the Tambovites turned into a force quite influential in the economic and political sense. By 1998, representatives of this criminal organization had taken key positions in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region in the sectors of real estate trade, the fuel and energy business, mechanical engineering, the food industry, and the financial sector.
The legalization process has led Kumarin to try to distance himself from everything criminal and to distance himself from his past. For this, he changed the name "Kumarin" to "Barsukov." In the same 1998, entrepreneur Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin) took the chair of the vice president of Petersburg Fuel Company.
Confrontation over the fuel and energy complex
The fuel and energy complex is a special article in the biography of this person. Vladimir Barsukov, the leader of the Tambov organized crime group, passionately sought undivided control over this area. The war for this sector began in 1994 with a change in the charter of Surgutneftegaz, which thus limited the possibilities of its subsidiaries and their shareholders in St. Petersburg. In other words, almost the entire fuel and energy complex of the Northern capital (oil storage facilities, gas stations) was removed from the control of St. Petersburg financial circles, to which Kumarin was also related. The Tambovskaya organized crime group took this step as a declaration of war, since it was at that time that they actively established control over this area. In addition, the change of the charter was not to the liking of the local directors of enterprises. As a result, having teamed up with the Tambovskys, they were able, through the media, to inflict significant damage on the image of Surgutneftegaz, which the government of St. Petersburg even accused of all fuel problems of the city. As an alternative, the Petersburg Fuel Company was proposed, the ownership of which was shared by the City Hall and two dozen large enterprises of St. Petersburg. However, these were only formalities. There were three real owners of the PTK: the leader of the "Malyshevsky" Alexander Malyshev, the entrepreneur Ilya Traber and the leader of the "Tambovskaya" organized crime group Vladimir Barsukov. It was with the money of these three people that this company was created.
Over the next four years, TPK took over everything that was previously controlled by Surgutneftegaz. In addition, Malyshev and Traber gradually left the game, even the city administration lost its share in the company. As a result, the fuel company created by the mayor’s office has ceased to have any relation to the state and Vladimir Barsukov, the leader of the Tambov organized crime group, has established sole control over it.
Relations with the administration
The Tambovskaya organized criminal group is the leader in fully utilizing administrative resources to influence its competitors. Thanks to this, they managed to win in the confrontation with their main enemy - the “Malyshevskaya” organized crime group.
One of Kumarin’s strategically correct moves was the appointment of Dmitry Filippov, head of the PTK, the head of the St. Petersburg tax inspectorate, who was a significant figure with enormous connections. His presence in this place allowed the company to develop successfully and quickly.
Confrontation with the "Mogilov"
The biography of Barsukov (Kumarin) contains information about his close cooperation with the deputy of the city Legislative Assembly Viktor Novoselov. But the latter also had close contacts with another criminal authority - Konstantin Yakovlev, known by the nickname Kostya-Mogila. In the end, Novoselov was killed, and a confrontation broke out between the leaders of the two criminal syndicates. It went down in history as a war between the criminal groups "Tambov" and "Mogilov".
War Results
The criminal confrontation of two powerful gangster organizations ended in a relative world. But its results were significant losses from Kumarin. Firstly, the murder of Novoselov deprived him of a guide of his own interests in the State Duma. Secondly, Kumarin himself lost the post of vice president of PTK. In addition, several of his closest accomplices were physically eliminated. By the way, there were no significant losses from the Grave. Several attempts were thwarted, as the hired killers from Novgorod were detained by police before they had time to do anything. In the end, after the meeting, the belligerents entered into a truce, thus demonstrating the legal nature of their activities. After that, many of Barsukov’s nominees occupied a number of major posts in St. Petersburg, and he himself received a personal cabinet in the government of St. Petersburg.
Coumarin and Putin
Many rumors circulated at one time also about the ties that Kumarin had with the future president, and then chairman of the St. Petersburg Mayor’s Committee on Foreign Relations, Vladimir Putin. The press wrote that Putin, also playing the role of consultant and member of the Russian-German real estate company SPAG, helped Kumarin launder money through this company. Later, in this case, as part of mutual assistance, at the request of the German police, Russian law enforcement officers interrogated Barsukov. However, no criminal proceedings were instituted.
Kumarin and Nevzorov
Kumarina associates the post of his assistant with Alexander Nevzorov. In addition, Barsukov made his film debut, playing the role of King Louis XIV in Nevzorov’s film “Horse Encyclopedia”.
Accusations
The year 2007 was marked by criminal tones for Kumarin. He was detained as a suspect in a contract murder case, where the victim was his own bodyguard. In addition, he was charged with the attempt on Sergei Vasiliev, who was a co-owner of the St. Petersburg oil terminal. At the same time, he was charged with organizing the Tambovskaya organized crime group and raider attacks on a number of enterprises. In 2009, on the latest charge, Barsukov was found guilty and sentenced to 14 years in a strict regime. In addition to him, seven more people received long terms. He was also found guilty of a number of other crimes, including extortion. Kumarin pleaded not guilty in any case. In 2011, Kumarin’s prison term was reduced to 11.5 years due to changes in the Criminal Code. But a year earlier, Barsukov received a new charge of some other crimes, which, however, were not reported. Later it became known that he was accused of incitement to the murder of Yan Gurevsky, a former colleague of Kumarin.
The time spent in custody negatively affected Barsukov’s state of health, which resulted in his hospitalization in serious condition. In the end, he was transferred to honey. part of the detention facility "Sailor silence". At the same time, he and two accomplices were accused of extorting a large amount of money (21 million rubles) from the owners of the Elizarovsky shopping mall. In the end, in this case, Barsukov was found guilty, as were his accomplices. In view of the previous unserved term, the verdict passed a decision on the deprivation of his freedom for a term of 15 years of strict regime.
In the spring of 2013, a new case began in which Kumarin’s involvement in the assassination of Sergei Vasiliev, co-owner of the St. Petersburg oil terminal, was examined. The trial took place in Moscow in the summer of 2014, at which the acquittal verdict of the jury was announced. However, in late autumn 2014, the Moscow Supreme Court overturned this sentence and returned the case to the St. Petersburg City Court at the stage of jury selection for a new trial. The case is still ongoing, therefore, answering the question of where Barsukov (Kumarin) is now, it can be argued that he is under investigation in one of the institutions of imprisonment.
Own
A number of media outlets mentioned Barsukov as the owner or co-owner of a number of large St. Petersburg companies - business centers, the Grand Palace shopping center, a restaurant line, the Parnas-M meat processing plant and a network of gas stations. The management of Petersburg Fuel Company, however, denied Kumarin’s involvement in this company since he left the post of its vice president. Barsukov officially positions himself as a pensioner (in addition, he has the 1st disability group). He insists that his main activity is charity. Among other things, he pointed out that several churches, bell towers were built on his funds and other sponsorship of the Orthodox Church was regularly provided. For example, the bell of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg was cast with his money and lighting was arranged, in the center of the Northern capital projecting several crosses into the sky using lasers. He also regularly provides financial assistance to the Novodevichy Moscow monastery, the church of St. Eugene in Kolomyagi and Svyatogorsky monastery. For his services to the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Barsukov has church awards presented by Patriarch of Moscow Alexy II. In addition to charity in favor of the church, he is known for sponsoring several regular sporting events, helping the financially nuclear submarine Tambov, and also providing one-time assistance to those in need. He himself supplements this list with the active maintenance of community relations in St. Petersburg and the help of immigrants from Tambov and the Tambov Region.
